After a video showing police officer John Pike pepper spraying Occupy protestors at the University of California-Davis campus in November 2011 went viral, Pike allegedly received death threats and suffered depression.

The stress was so great that Pike was able to reach a settlement with his former employer for $38,000 in a workers compensation suit this week for the psychological damage he suffered, reports the Guardian.

After the incident occurred, Pike was put on administrative leave and was fired the following year. In the episode’s wake, the university also reportedly shelled out $1m in settlements with protestors that were peppered sprayed during the demonstration.

Wait a minute! I saw that episode over and over on the news and have suffered PTSD ever since. And I sure as H-ll could use that 38 grand today! I aint kidding. I'm shivering thinking about that money, and also that uh, yeah pepper spray thing. I'm shaking.

I don't doubt he suffered vicious backlash from media coverage of this event. It's important to distinguish the harm he is asking for compensation for (death threats and depression) from the fact that he was acted poorly with regards to the welfare of students. Students shouldn't be treated this way, and they have a method of recourse through the court system as well.

If a jury decided that his harm was worth $38,000, so be it. In the realm of legal settlements this is a fairly small amount, especially when compared to the over 1 million shelled out for the victims of the spraying. (Disclaimer, I don't know how many students brought an action against the school, so I don't know how many people that 1 million dollar figure is divided amongst.)

Only in California can someone whose actions cost his employer a million dollars go back and sue that employer for having to live through the consequences of his actions and cost that same employer more money.

Why didn't the violent Tea Party demonstrators at the WW2 Vets Memorial, then in front of the WH (with a Confed Battle Flag, no less!) get pepper sprayed? They were *active* in their demonstration and anti-American sentiments, not peacefully sitting in protest of inequality like the students were.

Where is the outrage over the difference in treatment between the students and the democracy-wannabes?

@christianpaulanderson I sure hope your family don't meet up with a man like this , But i guess everyone in your family is a saint right ? However .. justice would be that You or your family will meet someone like this , I sure wouldn't shed a tear at justice .you see ,YOU chose to type what you did , You are as guilty and evil as officer pike . Go look in the mirror , i dare ya .

@janisegrubber you are assuming he has some . most coward cops don't , by the was just google officer arrested and put this years date , you will be amazed how many crimes cops are involved in , in my city alone 15 policemen have been fired are arrested , I don't know w hat in the world is wrong with these people

@BigDee I don't remember any news about veterans being pepper sprayed ,I do know a republican congressman who berated a park ranger has apologized to her for his ignorance .(she did not accept his apology ). This seems like that Bearing false witness commandment the so called christian right ,no longer believe in .

@GoArmy: While I'd be inclined to agree with you based on the principle of fair
treatment, I think that's the wrong message. Tyranny by police in this
country is a very real truth and it's bad no matter who it happens to. It just so happened that the Tea Party
"patriots" had a few money-bags and public figures watching over them
when this occurred. If you or your movement doesn't have big names
involved and/or doesn't pay to play - watch out. You have no protection, and should you 'make trouble', you're going to 'get what's coming to you'. There's also the old
saying: location location location. Police in California happen to be
in a league of their own when it comes to tyranny and abuse, where as
those in Washington are going to know that the whole world is watching.

Of
course, it also helps that a lot of these 'officers' are politically
sympathetic to said tea-baggers, often joining the events themselves or
at the very least nodding in approval.

@Wiggymaster You obviously have absolutely no idea what happened that day. 24 hours before the police made them leave, they said they would be coming in to force them to leave. The day they came, they gave 3 warnings telling the students that they need to leave the area since they were illegally protesting. The police then removed one of the camps that was violating the law. During this time they also arrested several students who were trying to fight the police.

At this point, the students who stuck around encircled the police while threatening them. Again, this is illegal. The police officer who sprayed the students went around and told every student there that they will be sprayed if they don't get out of the way. Did the students move? No, of course not. The police needed to transport the arrested students, but they others wouldn't allow it. Pepper spray was a last ditch effort. He did what was right. The only reason he got fired is because idiots like you made him out to be a villain.

@AlexanderSzukala@sensi@DougCheriBledsoe Only in America can you have law abiding ,right wing christian fanatics name them selves after people who committed piracy ( boarded a bout illegally } committed a felony ( stole all the tea ) And polluted the boston harbor ( tossed the tea overboard ). when evil thinks it is right , they will do anything .

All you have to do is listen to the conspiracy theories they tell each other.

According to them, Obama’s secretly gay, was married to his college room-mate, has a Wedding Ring with an Arabic Inscription on it, is a Marxist, a Communist, a Fascist, a Socialist, a Muslim, a CIA Agent, was born in Kenya and smuggled into the United States, refused to show his Birth Certificate, DID show his Birth Certificate but it was a forgery and is the illegitimate son of either Malcolm X or Frank Marshall Davis.

Note that you CAN’T be a Communist and a Fascist; the Nazis HATED the Communists. That’s how Hitler took power; he accused the legally elected President of Germany of being a Communist and had him executed.

Note that you CAN’T be a Muslim and spend 16 years going to a Christian Church.

Note that the CIA does background checks on all their employees, and wouldn’t hire a guy with a murky past.

Note that the pictures of Obama’s Wedding Ring are online, and it’s just a pattern of loops; I checked an Egyptian dictionary, Arabic, Farsi, etc. Just loops.

The latest scandal against the Tea Party is the founder of Overpasses to Impeach Obama decided to use donations to pay his personal bills.

@AlexanderSzukala Right... Because it wasn't like thousands of Tea Party 'not nut jobs' immediately got wood when this happened, all clamoring about the "worthless hippies" and "freeloading liberals" who got what was coming to them, and the heroic police who "put their lives on the line" every day to stop such "dangerous criminals."

There are many things you tea-baggers have in common with the Nazis, but more than anything else I think is your love of revisionist history. Unfortunately, I happened to be alive back when -this- happened, so I remember the reactions quite well.

The best part? I live in a 99% white rural America community, so I get to see said reactions first hand - people who laugh and joke and sneer while they watched these students be assaulted like this.